A problem on surface area. Assume a corn chloroplast has a volume of 20 cubic mi

Question

A problem on surface area. Assume a corn chloroplast has a volume of 20 cubic micrometers. Assume the dimensions of the chloroplast are that of a 2 x 2 x 5 micrometers, and that is box-shaped rather than an oval. This will make your calculations easier. If there are 10 layers of thylakoids in the chloroplast and each layer is equal to the surface area of one side (2 x 5 micrometers), then what is the total area of thylakoids if there are 50 chloroplasts per cell? What is the ratio of thylakoid surface area to the overall surface area of the chloroplast?

Explanation / Answer

Volume of chloroplast is 20 cubic micrometres. Surface area of each thyllakoid will be 2×5 = 10 square micometres. 10 layers of thyllakoid so, 10 × 10 = 100 square micrometres of surface area in each chloroplast. 50 chloroplastsin 1 cell so total surface area of all thyllakoids in a cell will be 100 × 50 = 5000 square micrometres.

Surface area of chloroplast will be 2× 2 = 4 square micrometres

Ratio of suface area of thyllakoid to chloroplast will be 10 :4 = 5 :2

Related Questions

Navigate

• Browse (All)
• Browse A
• Subjects

Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.